Meet Eikichi Onizuka, a 22-year-old ex-biker. He's crude, foul-mouthed, and has a split-second temper. His unlikely goal: to be the Greatest High School Teacher in the World! Of course, the only reason he wants to be a teacher is so he can try to score with the hot students...

Before he can become a full instructor, he's got to work as a student teacher to earn his credentials.

Onizuka may think he's the toughest guy on campus, but when he meets his class full of bullies, blackmailers, and scheming sadists, he'll have to prove it.

Yea Im saying wut the if I can finish this... man this manga is toooooooooooooo awesome! Each an every time it gets me goin from each plot to plot its interesting it makes me boil sumtimes(srry). Even towards the end I didnt want it 2 end becuz Onizuka is the best teacher out there. I would pay a billiob bucks 2 have a teach like him. It would help society so much in a positive and fun way I swear... Besides the plot, Onizuka is the man!!!(How many times do I ahve 2 stress this?) He does the impossible wut can i say? His pervertedness and reactions(when he gets pissed more specifically) towards things make this manga also a fun one as well. I am glad 2 have read this manga it makes me sad that it freakin ended...seriously... The best school life/shounen/comedy I have ever read so far...

One of the best manga I have ever read. I would have preferred a little more of the young videogame-boy and his girlfriend's story (they have shown them together only during the field trip and in some chapters near the end, plus she has still to confess!!!)... Well, after all this isn't a romance, so I will praise it expecially for the moral lesson that it teaches... And well, as one might say, it could be a bit unrealistic, but afterall it's just a manga, it hasn't to be all "realistish", otherwise it would have been too boring.

Splendid Shounen storytelling at its finest. Senin characterization. Morals by the bucketload. Laugh out loud comedy that doesnt involve teenage girls flipping head over heels exposing themselves. Great character development. Idiocy with a purpose. 10/10.

Edit - For the people who criticize this for unrealism, well I'd just like to throw back that this is one of the most realistic mangas there is. People are scarred, people learn, people are by no means perfect. And of course its an exaggeration, but it does so from realistic standpoints. Sure you got the guy who can bust through walls, but he does so for students who have uptight families, dad's that spend too much time away from home prioritizing work over life. The awesome thing is that the things Onizuka does do, hardly involves saving the world. Like this manga doesn't need over-dramatic life-changing events, but rather emphasizes day to day common problems with the message that change takes action.

[edit by mod, Warning possible spoilers]I want to ask sorry for the spoilers. Found a way to fix it kinda. Hope its better now. For the ones that want to see the spoilers just highlight the blank area between the tags that says <SPOILERS> The ones that read up to Volume 20 can check the spoilers with no fear.[edit by mod, Fixed the spoilers in a more elegant way]

Forst of all I am glad I watched the Anime first. First reason is that the manga seems to me much greater than the anime. Second is the the manga has so many dialogues that go into such minor details that I would give it up as soon as I started it. Final is because I would probably not watch the anime if I read the manga because both of them have about the same beginning but after a point their stories change so much but if I didn't know that I would probably skip the anime.

Ok lets see. Onizuka is nothing close to being a teacher.. BUT! The subject he is teaching is perfect for him. Probably if my school had such a teacher the things could be different indeed. Communication is hard between children and teacher and its a general truth. Even if the teacher wanted to they could not. <SPOILERS>

Spoiler (highlight to view)

I think it was volume 18 or 19 where onizuka saved one of his students from dying from cold. When they return parents are at school waiting to make onizuka meatballs and thats when the bald teacher pops up and apologizes to everyone. In between his dialogue he says that unlike a teacher onizuka hugged the girl half nude/nude and thats something a teacher would never do thinking of what will happen after. Ofcourse this may be a very bold example but its true.

<SPOILERS> So no one is at fault in the end. Not us students, not us parents and not us teachers. Too bad there is not someone like onizuka in every school..

I live in Greece and we have to go through 1 year of serving the army. In this one year I met ton of people. Actually most if not all of them were people I would never hang out with. Diligent ones, playboy ones and even delinquents. You see in there we all wore the same clothes so no one could understand what is who. I was amazed when I first saw them in their everyday clothes. There was a guy that dressed in a way that if I saw him on the street I would probably turn around and take another route. He was one of my best friends actually in there. I also met a guy that seems cool and nice but after a while me and the rest of the people in there realized he just shows a pretty face but he was saying everything we did to the higher ups. In the end every people is brainwashed by tv, parents, teachers and everyone and believes that when a person looks different is bad.

This manga, like previously mentioned by a poster, doesn't only talks about school. It walks about real life. Onizuka has nothing except raw strength. He is not even smart or cunning. He is always taken in so easily and even if people show him with a big neon sign that he is being a fool he will not realize it. He is pure fun and thats all.

Back to the manga. One of the "worst" things in this manga is the endless dialogues that usually go inside the head of teachers or students that can take chapters filled with just thoughts. Ofcourse when I read a manga I do not try to end it fast.. but this one is so good that its like its forcing me to know what will happen next. At the last 3-4 volumes I was reading (i have read up to the end of 19) I started skipping the tiny letters under main dialogues and the endless pages of each person's problems. Endless dialogues especially from that baldy teacher that end up showing how bad his like was. Even if I read them I do not really get all of these and thats because I have not been in these shoes. So yeah all these are tiring me BUT! I am glad they are there. It shows the writer did not pass all them as side characters but he shows to every character consideration and analyses why he is like that. Ofcourse onizuka comes in and solves it with his fists so thats kinda ^^;..

Afar from the endless dialogues that makes me feels that its more of a book than a manga nothing bothers me much. I am not expert in artwork and all but I can say that this one is pretty clear and easy to watch and Trigun Maximum (one of my favs) is pretty hard to even understand what your watch and at some points. So as long as I can understand what the picture shows I am happy. Reading it along some music (that would be light disco music for me) makes it very enjoyable. If I remember I have stopped at volume 9 a long time ago because the dialogues were gigantic and my head was burned. The a period of not watching anime or reading manga came and when I felt like reading again each time I brought this manga in my head there was something telling me to not to (all because of the endless dialogues). Now again at Volume 19 I feel unable to read more since it feels that its like a new season that will start. A new "bad" guy is coming and a lot of things will happen.

I want to comment another poster. He said "Do not be fooled by the masses" because he believes this manga is not as good as everyone seems to say. I can;t comment much on this but only one thing. Please don't say such a confusing thing. The people is not confused by the masses. Votings are there to show if somethi8ng is good or not. So if so many people say its good they are not trying to confuse but tell to the people that never read it how good this manga is. There is nothing you will see in this manga that can exist in reality. A teacher like onizuka is like neverland. A dream. And it doesn't feel repeating to me. Saying this is like saying every person that has individual problem can be counted with numbers. Each person in this life have different problems. So seeing onizuka solving their problems doesn't feel repeating, to me at least.

Anyway I will not continue criticizing what others believe. I will just say something I usually say and believe. When a thing lacks in something but has a lot of something else then the gap can be filled. Sadly I am a Greek and I can't express well myself. I strongly believe that no matter in what you believe GTO lacks there is surely something that makes it great. I would say the storyline but for this manga I can;t say it. Its something else that keeps me stuck to it. This dream Peter Pan that is called onizuka is a dream guy that everyone would love to have as a teacher and when you read though this manga you feel it in your skin.

I won't comment anymore since I feel that if I will say more I will start repeating what I said above. I Usually criticize a manga (or anything else) from its ending.. well except the ones that ofcourse are ongoing. Actually after reaching the first chapters I took a peek at the ending feeling that if I reached it and see something bad I would probably not read another manga ever again. I will just say I saw something good that made me decide that one day I would read all of it.

I am giving this manga a 15 out of 10 and the only reason I am not giving it a 20 out of 10 is because the endless dialogues that I mentioned that feel a bit (or more than a bit) pointless to me and they add a ton of fatigue to me. In other words I love this manga and I will love it no matter what ^^ Hope a lot people read it and I am sure you will love it! ^^ Dats all from me.

This is so horrible... so horribly good. The stuff that happens in the manga may of been tried elsewhere but Onizuka's reactions and actions are just hilarious, and as opposed to being the good teacher and letting his students off by just saving them, he makes sure they learn their lesson first Great great series, he truly deserves the 'G' in GTO. Art is nice as well, not quite lacking, but not your most fancy; though I do love his surprised and sad face expressions, hilarious. The world definitely needs more GTO! T_T Go Onizuka, go and finally rid yourself of your virginity...

This manga is sooo cool!! Onizuka does the silliest thing a human can possibly do, but the guy is undeniable has a heart of gold! and I luv the fact that he's not exactly the goody goody type.. just makes him more real as a person.. most of the supporting characters are likeable too..

I wish I had a teacher Onizuka.. I would definitely make sure I'd come to school everyday and be a part of Onizuka gang..

This is one of those mangas that you will hear everyone praise as one of the greats, but do not be fooled by the masses. Its a stereotypical teacher drama with crude humor and a plot that repeats itself over and over. For example, student has a problem and dislikes the main character or one of the main characters friend. Student than is taught a lesson by main character through tough love, rinse and repeat. The art in many cases isn't as bad as people think, its just different and we all know people hate change. The boys don't look like girls instead they look like boys and all the girls practically look the same, so in essence it has a little realism instead of exaggerated facial features and body parts. But all these negatives aside its a good read just not great. The main character grows on you and you accept his actions as thoughtful and hilarious. You cheer him on till the very end and Onizuka may very well be one of the greatest charatcers in manga and anime history. That alone makes this a decent read. If you haven't read it, i suggest you do, just don't buy into the hype. Its good but not great, but by all means its better than most of the crap out there. 8/10

I was never able to finish this series. The plot is definitely there for it to be a great manga (as many here believe it to be), but I can't help but feel the artwork was drawn as such (ie, pretty awful) to keep casual manga readers away from it - while more in-depth manga enthusiasts could see right through that and appreciate the comedic gold and thoughtful stories in this series. Sadly, I find myself in the former group, too disgusted with the illustrations (especially facial features) to fully involve myself with this story. I gave it a 6.5, but with a better illustrator, it would have been a 9 easily. What can I say? I'm superficial, I guess.

Maybe I'll come back to it one day (I was able to get through about 4 1/2 volumes before putting it down), but today probably isn't that day.